"The BenchmarkPortal Center of Excellence certification demonstrates our commitment to operational excellence through rigorous efficiency and effectiveness metrics. We are proud to receive this recognition awarded only to call centers in the top 10 percent of those evaluated," said Thomas Carrato, president of Health Net Federal Services. "We believe operational excellence lays the foundation to provide quality service to our beneficiaries, health care providers and customers."

"Certification is an important distinction because it is based on best-practice metrics drawn from BenchmarkPortal's database of contact center metrics, which was founded at Purdue University and is one of the largest in the world. This achievement recognizes the call center's ability to deliver service that is both efficient and effective," said Bruce Belfiore, BenchmarkPortal's chief executive officer.

The certification process involved audits of call center operations jointly operated by Health Net Federal Services and PGBA, LLC, which serve TRICARE beneficiaries in the North Region. TRICARE is the uniformed services health care program for active duty, retired, Guard and Reserve, and their families provided through the U.S. Department of Defense.

About BenchmarkPortal

According to BenchmarkPortal's website, BenchmarkPortal's founders pioneered the first contact center benchmarking study in 1995. Now custodian of the largest database of contact center metrics in the world, BenchmarkPortal is a leader in certification, training, consulting and research for the customer contact industry. Its team of professionals has gained international recognition for expertise and innovation in best practices. BenchmarkPortal's mission is to help management optimize the performance of their center in terms of both cost and quality, encourage customer loyalty and build enterprise value. For more information on BenchmarkPortal, call 1-800-214-8929 or visit www.BenchmarkPortal.com.

About Health Net Federal Services

Health Net Federal Services is the managed health care contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense's health care program, TRICARE, in the north region, which includes Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky (except Fort Campbell), Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia. In addition, the TRICARE North Region covers a small portion of Missouri and Iowa.

About Health Net

Health Net, Inc. is a publicly traded managed care organization that delivers managed health care services through health plans and government-sponsored managed care plans. Its mission is to help people be healthy, secure and comfortable. Health Net provides and administers health benefits to approximately 5.4 million individuals across the country through group, individual, Medicare (including the Medicare prescription drug benefit commonly referred to as "Part D"), Medicaid, U.S. Department of Defense, including TRICARE, and Veterans Affairs programs. Through its subsidiaries, Health Net also offers behavioral health, substance abuse and employee assistance programs, managed health care products related to prescription drugs, managed health care product coordination for multi-region employers, and administrative services for medical groups and self-funded benefits programs.

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